Community takes charge of natural resource management

Empowered villagers and reinforced village committees manage their forests

Historically, illegal tree cutting, charcoal production, land clearing, and fires were rampant in Mampatim, a collectivity of 303 square miles comprising nearly 100 villages in southern Senegal. Mampatim’s fertile soil and abundant forests have always constituted valuable resources. But over the past 10 years, the demands of a growing population brought about disorganized and sometimes abusive harvesting practices. Wild fruits and game, food crops, and wood for furniture, and charcoal were under threat, and local government leaders and the state forest service were unable to protect them.

Although the Senegalese government delegated increased authority to Mamaptim’s elected rural council in 1996 to plan and oversee natural resources management, residents still believed state forest agents were responsible. With only one agent covering the entire collectivity, the forest service realized, however, that it alone could not protect the area’s resources. What was needed was a new approach, based on communication and collaboration around shared objectives between the state forest service and the community of Mampatim, including its elected officials, village committees, and residents.

With support from USAID’s decentralization and local governance program, the people of Mampatim met community-based organizations, village leaders, and local technical agents to identify ways to improve life in the collectivity. Participants asked USAID to train them on their roles and responsibilities regarding natural resource management as outlined in Senegal’s 1996 decentralization law. Residents learned that their elected council had the authority to develop local resource management plans, and to create and implement forest surveillance committees.

In 2002, several Mampatim residents visited the neighboring collectivity of Pata and learned how its rural council and village organizations had established an effective forest monitoring system. Setting up clear criteria for the selection of forest monitors, Mampatim restructured 107 nearly-defunct village committees. USAID helped Mampatim and the forest service develop a written code of conduct for volunteer monitors and train them to conduct patrols, deal with infringements, and prepare reports.

Additionally, USAID provided bicycles and uniforms for the monitors, and motorcycles for three zonal supervisors, enabling them to maintain close contact with the forest service regarding fires and unauthorized activities. USAID also supplied fire-fighting equipment to village committees and funded training for them by the forest service in techniques for preventing and extinguishing brush fires.

Community leaders also launched public information campaigns to engage residents in the process. For its part, USAID provided extensive assistance to the collectivity in developing property management systems and procedures to ensure that the equipment and materials would continue to be used transparently and be properly maintained.

For the first time in years, Mampatim residents perceive an abundance of wild fruits, syrup from trees, and forage for their livestock -- a change they credit largely to Mampatim’s functioning village surveillance committees. In 2004 the committees put out three brush fires, conducted preventive burning on 250 hectares of forest and pasture land, and reported nine cases of illegal activities.

“Not only do people think first to stop people from cutting and burning because those resources are for them, but they also now talk about the fact that they need to preserve the forest for their children and future generations,” says Rural Council member, Amadou Baldé.

The rural council and the forest service now coordinate forest maintenance efforts according to written agreements that specify their respective roles. Everyone now realizes they are working toward the same goal -- to ensure that Mampatim’s precious natural resources are managed wisely.